The Beatles are funny – I play some of these covers and the lyrics and melodies come to me instantly, like they were ingrained in my being, even though I may not have listened to the original in 10 or 20 years. But I was never really a Beatles-lover growing up. As a kid, my parents owned and sometimes played Sgt. Pepper’s, and my friend Dan Morris was a Beatle-head at a young age – he had one of those cassette-organizers with the three drawers, and I remember opening up one of the drawers and it being filled with all Beatles tapes. This is actually one image I associate most with the Beatles to this day – I think I was more amazed by his collection than the music.(I also remember those cassette-drawers things being really crappy plastic pieces of $%#^).

So I don’t have a full understanding how all these songs have permeated my brain. My only guess is that growing up in this country, at least during a certain period of time, the Beatles were such a cultural force that they were inescapable – even years after they had gone their separate ways. This isn’t really a complaint, it’s just something that’s intense to think about.

Anyway – it’s also crazy to think about how so many people were inspired to do hundreds of covers of their music, through any and every genre. I have gospel records with covers of “Let it Be,” and crazy pysch covers of “Eleanor Rigby.” So here’s a couple of my favorites – as you can see, I love “Rocky Raccoon,” it’s just a great song, and I couldn’t help playing two different versions below, both of which are incredible. It seems like everyone and their mother covered Rigby, so I tried to give two different versions with completely different moods. There’s definitely some great covers that I didn’t drop, either because I don’t own them or they just didn’t fit this time around.

DJ Ian HeadI've been collecting records since 1996, and distributing digital music on the internet since 2006. This site will be updated on a regular basis. The majority of the product is available free.